Amazing! Yesterday a second dismasting occurred in the Volvo Ocean Race - this time to the American boat Puma in the southern Atlantic. Now only three of the starting six boats remain in the first leg from Alicante to Cape Town. No one was hurt in the incident, and Puma is limping back in under a jury rig. Makes me wonder what the engineers on the team (and the team of Abu Dhabi, dismasted on the first day) were doing. Of course there's enormous pressure on the designers to keep the boats light and fast, but cutting the specs apparently to the bone would seem to invite disaster. Imagine if 33% of cruising sailboats were dismasted on their first ocean voyage! A statistic like that wouldn't give you much confidence in your own boat. Still, it happens even with the most prepared cruisers - and everyone going offshore should know how to be prepared for a possible dismasting.
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